A stability ball is a powerful ally in your quest for flatter abdominals and a cinched waist. Not only can it make that plank or crunch more challenging, it also ups the ante on standing abdominal work such as the Russian twist, demonstrated here by celebrity trainer and group fitness instructor Amy Dixon, who uses the move on her "Give Me 10 Core Cuts" DVD.

This exercise tones your core, loosens your hips and gets your heart rate up, allowing you to burn more calories than you would with some other floor exercises. It's also a great warm-up for other exercise.

What to do

Stand in a sumo squat with legs wider than hip distance, extending the ball in front of you with both hands. Rotate to the left, keeping the ball extended out in front of you as far as you can and pivoting on your right foot with your heel in the air. Then twist back through the center to the far right as you pivot on the left foot. Inhale as you move through the center; exhale as you rotate to each side. Long arms and greater range of motion are what determine the intensity of this exercise. It can be made easier by bringing the ball in closer to your chest.

Are you having trouble starting your engine in the morning? This move, called the tabletop lever and derived from the Five Tibetans, a series of exercises used by monks or lamas for more than 2,500 years, helps to energize and strengthen your entire body in about the same time it takes to pour...

Yogis know that breathing is more than a necessity, it's a luxury, especially in times of stress. Just five minutes of deep breathing can calm your mind and diminish the stress-related cortisol hormone coursing through your body.

On an unusually chilly Friday evening, Culver City's public pool bustled with activity. Dozens of swimmers kicked and splashed as bundled-up coaches called instructions from the deck. At one end of the pool, Joe McCauley swam a lap of freestyle. His arms circled slowly, deliberately. His torso...

Saturday night at the Forum, Canadian rock trio Rush takes its Los Angeles fans on a trip back through time. It's often said that the band makes a big sound for having only three members, and for more than four decades 62-year-old lead singer and bassist Geddy Lee's double duties have been straining...

In the late 1980s, a handsome, muscle-bound transplant to Santa Monica from South Africa called Johnny G (for Goldberg) came up with an idea for indoor cycling classes he called Spinning. Indoor cycling soon became a fitness mainstay, but he could hardly have anticipated the scene today.

When it comes to a healthful diet, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That's the new approach a nutritional advisory committee has taken in its recommendations to the federal government for the upcoming 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.